


Drowning In You

by dogfighter3000



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Lifeguards, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, American Sign Language, CPR, Cheesy Romance Tropes, F/F, F/M, Hospitals, M/M, Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Summer Romance, some real classic tropes here, this is just cheesy garbage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-04 12:21:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17898359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogfighter3000/pseuds/dogfighter3000
Summary: In Link’s defense, swimming in the ocean was a lot more difficult than swimming in the pool behind his best friend’s house on hot summer days. It isn’t that he doesn’t know how to swim, because he totally does, but there really wasn’t anything that could have prepared him for the tug of the currents during high tide or the crash of a wave that he just couldn’t dodge.Luckily the hot lifeguard on duty is REALLY good at his job.





	1. Bitch, I'm Drowning

**Author's Note:**

> ref of characters:  
> https://pseudofighting.tumblr.com/post/182721441676/human-champions-for-a-fic-im-writin-and-i-had-to

In Link’s defense, swimming in the ocean was a lot more difficult than swimming in the pool behind his best friend’s house on hot summer days.

It isn’t that he doesn’t know how to swim, because he totally does, but there really wasn’t anything that could have prepared him for the tug of the currents during high tide or the crash of a wave that he just couldn’t dodge. 

Being a weak swimmer had never been a problem while growing up in the place that he did. They weren’t in a coastal state. Half of the population of their rinky-dink little town didn’t even know how to swim at all and the select few that were actually good at it were either from out of state or on the high school swim team.

One of the rare few people here that excelled in the water had been Link’s childhood friend, Mipha Dorephan, and she ended up being the star of the girl’s swim team. She could swim circles around him, no problem. Her dad had moved her and her younger brother from California to Arizona during her last year of elementary school. Mipha had lived in the same fancy neighborhood as Link’s best friend Zelda and when she finished high school, she had ended up moving right back to California for a prestigious college where she could get her nursing degree.

Mipha was one of the oldest in their little friend group so her moving a couple of hours away had been a huge bummer at first. 

In Link’s nightmares, he can still hear Zelda, up in her bedroom loudly singing along to her ‘In My Feels’ Playlist with all the curtains drawn. 

Of course, it didn’t end up being that big of a deal in the end because their friend group came up with a plan to meet up, all six of them, at least once a month. Which ended up working rather well over the last four years seeing as how they were all in college now and between projects and exams and part-time jobs, there wasn’t much time to be spent hanging out anyways.

Which had lead to this summer when everybody was free for the month of July. 

Urbosa, who was the same age as Mipha and graduated from college with an associate’s two years ago to become a cop, drove Link’s beat-up van with everyone inside up to California for a month. They were staying at Mr. Dorephan’s beach house so they wouldn’t have to worry about trashing his home or affording hotel rooms on a skimpy college budget.

Upon arriving Mipha had apologized profusely, anxiously rambling on about the sleeping arrangements in the beach house and that since there was only three bedrooms that they would all have to share.

“I know it’s less than ideal, and again, I’m SO very sorry about that but I-” Urbosa held a hand up to interrupt Mipha’s timid mumbling.

“Mipha. It’s more than fine. We’re all friends here and I’m sure nobody’s going to raise hell over a couple of shared rooms,” She reassured.

“Speak for yourself…” Revali, the resident emo of the friend group, muttered under his breath. Urbosa reached over to slap the back of his head, causing him to squawk indignantly. 

“NOBODY is going to make a fuss about it.” She repeated with a tight grin, flawlessly tossing her long red ponytail behind a dark shoulder. Mipha stepped forward to grab her hand and smiled gratefully up at her, literally UP at her seeing as she’s the shortest of the group at 5’4 and Urbosa towers above around 6’ tall.

“That’s very sweet of you to say but I still feel a little embarrassed to have my friends drive all this way to see me and have them stay in such tiny quarters…” She trailed off, face flushing as she stared down at her feet. 

Link tilted his head down to try and catch her eyes. He tried for a reassuring smile before Zelda hip checked him to the side, she was never one to pass up a chance to get closer to Mipha. Gently tugging Mipha’s hands out of Urbosa’s and bringing them closer to her, Zelda shot a blinding smile her way. 

The entire group all simultaneously rolled their eyes, all of them were painfully aware how clueless the two girls were to the other’s feelings and how they’ve been dancing around each other ridiculously for almost four years now.

“It’s lovely, would you show us around?” Zelda asked sweetly, turning her body towards the front of the house, spurring Mipha into action. 

As the two headed to the door, quickly falling into conversation, Revali pretended to gag. The tallest of the group, a rotund firefighter named Daruk who was a year younger then Urbosa and Mipha, laughed loudly. Rolling her eyes fondly at the two of them Urbosa sighed and sped up to walk with the girls, muttering about ‘dumb boys’ under her breath. 

Link hiked his backpack up further on his shoulders and grinned over at Revali and Daruk, the latter of the two giving a large smile in return. Revali just huffed, adjusting his shoulder bag into a more comfortable position before heading towards the house himself. 

Link couldn’t help but snicker at how dramatic his friend was being before following after him and ‘accidentally’ ramming into his side, shoulder-first. He passed by, kicking his speed up to a light jog as he smirked back at him and signed a quick ‘sorry!’. It had the intended effect of making Daruk guffaw and ruffling Revali’s feathers, spurring him into chasing after Link, threatening him all the while. 

Despite all of Mipha’s concerns, the inside of the beach house was nothing short than amazing. 

It had an open floor concept, the dining room, kitchen, and sitting room all laid out strategically through a large living area. Not only was it a large space but it was also lavishly furnished with sets that looked right of a catalogue. If anybody had problems with sharing a room then Link certainly wouldn’t complain about sleeping out on the plush sofa in the living room. Just this main area alone was probably bigger than the entirety of the house he had lived in when he was little and still staying with his dad.

A quick glance down the hallway and into the open door of one of the bedrooms proved that they were rather spacious as well. 

Assuming all of them were the same, it looked like each room was equipped with a large bed, two nightstands on either side, and a dresser across the room. They were simple and impersonal, further proving it was a vacation house used a scant couple times a year.

While Link had been glancing about and learning the layout of their home for the next month, the others had gathered in the living room and were starting to determine who would room with who. 

To absolutely nobody’s surprise, Zelda volunteered to share a room with Mipha. Urbosa was insisting that she didn’t care who she was rooming with as long as they didn’t touch her things and Daruk agreed along with her. The only one complaining would be Revali, who said he would rather die than room with Link. 

Of course, that only encouraged the rest of the group to insist that the two of them share, purely for how funny it would be to watch them get on each other’s last nerves for the upcoming weeks.

At Revali’s expense, Link figured he might as well play along and agree to share a room with him. After all, he can always sleep on the couch if it gets to be too much. 

With a downright caustic grin, Link nodded to which Revali immediately groaned angrily at as he clutched the strap to his messenger bag and stomped towards the room they would be sharing and slammed the door behind him. Link couldn’t hold back his laughter as he flopped back into the plush couch. Already he could see that this vacation was going to be entertaining, to say the least.

That had been Friday morning and now it was Saturday afternoon and the six of them had decided that a trip to the beach was in order. Mipha had insisted they go to her favorite spot that was about a 20 minute walk from the beach house. 

In theory, a 20 minute walk hadn’t seemed like such an arduous task but Link quickly learned that walking on sand in flip-flops while the sun was at its highest was like some weird, new brand of torture. 

5 minutes in and Revali made them stop so he could tie up his long navy hair, insisting that he was genuinely melting and would die if they kept on like this. Link rolled his eyes, mocking him to Zelda who had to cover her mouth to stop from laughing but he was secretly grateful for the break because his own blonde hair was starting to stick to the back of his neck.

“It’s cooler to walk down by the shore if that would be easier for you three?” Mipha giggled, staring over at Link, Zelda, and Revali who were obviously more affected by the heat than the others. 

Urbosa thoroughly enjoyed the heat and both Mipha and Daruk had grown up in places with a hot climate while Revali had spent his life up until middle school in cold, rainy Seattle. If it was above 80 outside he’d adamantly refuse to leave his apartment until one of his friends inevitably dragged him out. Link and Zelda were bothered by the heat as well but nowhere near as much as Revali. They were only wary of the sun because they were both pale enough that they burned easily. 

Regardless, as soon as Mipha mentioned walking along the shoreline, Link had slung the towel he was holding over Zelda’s shoulder and sprinted for the water. He didn’t go in particularly deep, having to stop to kick off his shoes before wading in up to his knees and kicking at a small wave crashing against him.

“I should throw your towel into the ocean! I’m not your pack mule, Link!” Zelda huffed out from where she was crossing the sand to the shore at a much slower place. 

Laughing, he waved his hand towards her in a flippant gesture and started to shuffle back out of the water because he had no doubts that she would let his towel get swept out to sea. As soon as she was in front of him she shoved his towel into his chest and turned sharply enough that her braid swung around to whip across his cheek.

The rest of the group, that had finally finished making their way to the shoreline, couldn’t help but laugh and Link bumped his shoulder into Zelda’s to make her stumble as she was slipping out of her sandals. She shot him a warning glare that promised war before turning back to Mipha with a sunshine-y grin that held none of the malicious intent that she had just sent to her best friend. “Lead the way, Mipha!”

The rest of the walk had been uneventful besides Link starting a small fight between himself and Revali after he had splashed water up at him, soaking the bottom of his tacky, floral button up t-shirt. 

When they got to Mipha’s favorite spot, Link couldn’t help but immediately understand the allure. 

This section of the beach might have been a tad busy but it was worth it, seeing as it had access to just about everything. 

The section of the shore they were in was probably the widest stretch of the beach around this area. There was a small red and white shack with a cross on it where Link assumed the lifeguards were and he could see that across the stand was a boardwalk that looked as if it could have been straight out of a movie. There were several cheesy souvenir shops, a few wacky tourist traps, and a couple of places selling fast food or ice cream. 

A little further away from that was a mini-carnival of sorts with a ferris wheel, arcade, and a couple of other rides that he was absolutely itching to go on. The boardwalk stretched out into a pier across the sand and a little ways into the ocean and he could see people strolling across it to go and look out at the boats drifting along the horizon.

Back on the beach there were dozens of families and teens and older couples on towels or walking along the shore or splashing in the waves and he couldn’t help but feel a rush of excitement as he looked around at all there was to do around here. 

Turning back to his friends, he watched in obvious glee as Revali struggled to open up the umbrella he had brought with him, his face going red when Urbosa had to do it for him. Acting like he wasn’t absolutely embarrassed that he had to get help from the ‘Group Mom’ with opening an umbrella, Revali dusted himself off and sat down on the towel he had laid out on the sand. 

“Not a singular sound from you, dickhead,” He muttered at Link’s poorly hidden snickering. Flopping back and slipping on shades, Revali was down for the count. At least they had managed to get him outside and he wasn’t going to stay cooped up in the beach house all day. 

Setting his towel down, Link glanced around for ideas on what to do first. 

Urbosa had stretched out across a towel in the sun and pulled out a book, enjoying her time off of work, Mipha and Zelda had wandered down to the water, giggling to each other about something or other, and Daruk was pulling a volleyball out of his bag and pointing to it with a grin.

“Wanna play ball, little man?” He asked, wiggling his eyebrows up and down. Link nodded eagerly and jogged down towards the shoreline so there was some distance between the two of them. They started by just lamely tossing it back and forth but quickly escalated to Daruk serving the ball in a ridiculous way and Link diving for it in an equally absurd way.

It was a simple, thoughtless game that the two of them were playing but Link couldn’t help but feel a sharp pang of nostalgia of back when they were in high school. They would aimlessly run around in Zelda’s backyard, tackling each other in a two-player version of football. 

While Urbosa was the most mature in the group, Daruk definitely had his life together more than anybody else. If she was the group mom, he was the group dad. 

He had volunteered at the fire department when he was just 16 years old and had immediately started a full time job there after he graduated from high school 3 years ago. Almost two years ago his highschool sweetheart had surprised him with an unplanned pregnancy and he had been a dad for the entirety of last year. They were even planning on getting married sometime next summer. 

While maybe his sense of humour was immature, Daruk had certainly done the most growing up out of all of them.

But Link had really missed this. Missed mindlessly joking around with him or even just tossing a ball around. It filled him with warmth and he couldn’t help but smile at the thought as he leaped up to catch a ball that would have soared over his head otherwise.

Their game was interrupted when Zelda came over to tug Link’s ponytail after he had almost crashed into some poor kid’s sandcastle in a potentially risky dive that he had ended up missing anyways and instead got a mouthful of sand. 

“You’re such a child, Link,” she had muttered, no real heat behind her words as she gave his hair another yank before letting go. “It’s high tide so we’re gonna head over to the boardwalk for ice cream. You wanna come with us?” she offered, glancing over Link’s shoulder to where Mipha was walking up to the other three and asking them the same thing.

Link nodded, he was hot and sweaty and a frozen treat sounded good right about now. He was about to head back over to the group with Zelda when he heard the kid with the sandcastle cry out to his brother who had been playing in the waves with a tiny foam kickboard.

“Talo!!! Get out of the water! Waves are too big!” The kid had shouted. Talo, his older brother, Link assumed, started to wade his way out of the water when a particularly big wave snuck up behind him and took the kid down. He couldn’t help but turn and search for him waiting to see his head poke back out of the water. For a nervous 10 seconds that felt more like 10 minutes, Link watched the waves until Talo poked his head up. Rubbing the sand out of his eyes he laughed as he stomped the rest of the way out of the water.

Link started to feel a bit silly for getting so nervous, it was obvious these kids were much more used to the beach than he was. Grabbing the volleyball that was still in the sand by his feet, the blonde turned to get back to his friends when he felt a small tug at the bottom of his swim trunks and the kid who had disappeared under the water’s surface nervously peering back up at him.

“Hey, mister? I accidently dropped my board back there and I can’t get to it!” Talo whined, pointing frantically to where the neon orange kickboard drifted along the tops of rough waves a decent distance away from the shore. “My dad JUST bought that for me and if I lose it he’s gonna get real upset, can you get it for me?” He was tugging on Link’s shorts frantically now. 

Nodding his head and giving the younger boy a reassuring smile Link set his volleyball aside and started out into the rough surf. 

Pushing past where the waves were breaking, it took a couple of minutes to swim out to where the board was bobbing up and down. He grinned when he grabbed a hold of it and turned back to shore so he could wave the board in triumph. He was shocked to see just how far he had drifted out.

Suddenly Mipha’s warning about the currents and tides made a lot more sense. Squinting at the sand he could make out the two little kids standing by the edge of the water and Zelda had joined them. She had her hands cupped around her mouth and it looked like she was trying to call out to him. Between the distance and the sound of waves crashing down he couldn’t make out a single word he said so he just gave her a quick thumbs up before making his way back to shore.

It seemed a lot more difficult to swim back in after getting out there in the first place, he had no idea how taxing swimming was and he didn’t get far before he stopped to resurface and take a deep breath. 

He was close enough to hear Zelda’s voice, she was yelling out his name. Link couldn’t reach the bottom here so using one hand to keep himself above water he used the other hand to do half of the sign for ‘what?’

Over the sound of the waves and the wind and the pounding of his own heart beat he managed to hear her yell out “Watch out!!!” while frantically pointing behind him. He had turned around just in time to see an enormous wave that was breaking way too soon crash down over his head. 

Managing to suck in half of a panicked breath of air, he was forced under. 

He hadn’t been ready for the crashing surf to spiral him through the water, the current jerking him around before knocking the back of his head directly into a rock on the ocean floor. It’s safe to say, that, even though he was a semi-decent swimmer, a knack for swimming doesn’t help out much if you fall unconscious before you can paddle to the surface and take another breath.


	2. Kissing Strangers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a ref for what the Dorephan family looks like (Sidon and Mipha as humans)  
> https://pseudofighting.tumblr.com/post/183200811746/sidon-and-mipha-but-theyre-humans-eyes-emoji-go

There’s worst ways to come back from unconsciousness than with another pair of lips crushed against yours. 

Although it becomes considerably less ideal with the following rush of air passed into his waterlogged lungs with the force of a jet engine. 

Jerking up and coughing salty water out of his throat, a pair of large hands turn him over onto his side while he chokes up what feels like an entire gallon of seawater.

Link stayed slumped over on his side for a couple seconds, assessing everything going on around him. 

All the water that had entered and subsequently exited his body left his throat feeling wrecked enough that he couldn’t speak even if he wanted to. The back of his head throbbed painfully and he felt disoriented. Which only further convinced him that when he oh-so gracefully bashed the back of his skull on that rock, he gave himself a concussion. 

It took him longer than he would have liked to realize that Zelda was frantically speaking to him, words going a mile a minute. The only thing stopping her from reaching over and shaking Link by his shoulders to garner his attention was the white knuckled grip that she had on Mipha’s arm. 

Mipha looked downright distraught as she also spoke in hushed tones to the lifeguard who was staring back down at Link with wide brown eyes and a reassuring smile as he asked, “Are you alright? You took quite the beating out there!”

Link squinted up at him and slowly nodded his head, groaning lowly as the movement to his head felt like it was rattling his brains around. God, he had a killer headache. 

Letting the lifeguard and Mipha slowly help him into a sitting position he couldn’t help but notice how big this dude was. 

He was tan with dark red hair pulled back into a long ponytail and he had strong arms that looked like they burst the sleeves off of the white tank that he was wearing. There was a smattering of light freckles across the bridge of his nose, probably from spending a large quantity of time out in the sun and his brown eyes nearly looked golden if he shifted his head just so.

“God dammit, you gay disaster! Look at me, for christ’s sake!” Zelda’s shrill voice broke through his dazed staring. 

Snorting a laugh he turned to face his best friend but faltered when he saw she had obvious tears in her eyes and her hands were balled up in fists, both obvious signs that she was shaken up by all of this. “Are you ok? Where are you hurt?”

Shakily bringing his hands up he gave her a quick thumbs up before signing ‘hurt’ near his forehead to inform her about his headache.

“You better be thankful that your head hurts or I’d be beating the utter crap out of you! What in the bloody hell were you doing out there, you absolute dunce?!” Zelda scolded, putting her hands on her hips as she glared from where she was kneeling in front of him.

Rolling his eyes he signed to Zelda, explaining how he had been trying to help those kids get their toy kickboard out of the water. Which, as he glanced around him, had probably been let go of and was drifting out to sea as they sat there. 

Way to go, he almost killed himself over a kickboard that he didn’t even manage to get back to shore.

“That’s all fine and well that you tried to help them get their toy back but I told you that it was high tide! You can hardly swim across our pool, what makes you think you could make it out in the OCEAN?” She huffed, throwing her arms out in an exasperated gesture. 

Mipha leaned over, taking one hand off of Link to rest it on Zelda’s arm instead. “Why don’t you go join Urbosa in getting back to the beach house and getting the van? We should get Link to a doctor so we can make sure he’s ok,” the small redhead offered, giving Zelda a kind smile. “Sidon and I can handle Link from here on out.” 

Was that the lifeguard’s name? Why did that sound so familiar?

Zelda held her breath for a good couple of seconds, looking all too ready to argue that she should stay here but she took one glance at Urbosa, who was giving her a dry look, and all the air rushed out of her tiredly. “You’re right. I’ll go help get the van. Please take care of him.” With that she stood up and let Urbosa take her by the arm and lead her down the beach towards the house.

Turning back to shoot a weak glare at Mipha, Link signed ‘no hospital!’ She smiled softly, rolling her eyes as she gently patted his shoulder.

“Don’t be like that, that was scary for all of us. Even Revali is worried about you,” She giggled, hooking an arm underneath one of his as the lifeguard did the same at his other side and the both of them helped him to his feet. 

There was a protest at the tips of his fingers but when he was fully upright the world around him spun and he had to squeeze his eyes shut as he fought back a wave of nausea. When he opened his eyes again he could see Mipha frowning up at him and he quickly averted his gaze toward the lifeguard. 

The lifeguard, Sidon, was it? Who was much taller than Link had expected him to be. The guy had to be at least half a foot taller than him, rivaling even Daruk. He was towering above him with an eerily similar expression of worry on his face. Huffing stubbornly, he directed his attention down towards the sand as he struggled to worm his arms out and away from theirs and stand on his own. 

“You’re bleeding, there’s a small gash on the back of your head,” Sidon points out, keeping a steady hand on his back.

Link groans frustratedly and reaches back, ignoring Mipha who immediately gripes at him to get his sandy hands away from the cut. When he pulls his hand away it comes back bloody. 

“Will you stop fussing about the hospital now? Or do I need to throw you over my shoulder and bring you there by force?” She teased, taking a page out of Zelda’s books and resting her hands on her hips to glare at him. 

Rolling his eyes, Link jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the boardwalk where Urbosa and Zelda would be pulling up with the van. Mipha smirked triumphantly and hooked an arm around his waist, much to his dismay. 

Link tried to shrug her off so he could walk up the beach on his own but that became significantly more difficult when the wet packed sand of the shoreline gave away to hot, shifting sand that his clumsy feet wanted nothing more than to trip over. 

Mipha quietly caught up to him and gently grabbed onto his elbow to help him along and he was too tired to complain. With Sidon trailing quietly behind them the trio made it halfway up the beach to where Revali and Daruk had been packing up the last of the beach stuff.

“What were you thinking, little guy? Those waves are huge and you’re not even kneehigh to a grasshopper!” Daruk gesticulated wildly as he spoke. 

Revali looked uncomfortable as he stood next to him, arms folded across his chest. “I’d greatly appreciate it if you didn’t go out and make a pathetic excuse of a suicide attempt everytime we leave the house. Leave our vacation time out of the hospital,” He huffed before turning tail and heading up towards the boardwalk. 

Daruk huffed out a quiet laugh as he watched the other storm off. “Bird Brain over there sure has a weird way of saying that he was worried about you, huh?” he chuckled before going to catch up with him, bags in hand. 

“I don’t think your friends are going to be back in time to meet us at the boardwalk. Do you mind if I go grab my keys, take Link, and go ahead to the hospital?” Sidon asks, gesturing behind him to the lifeguard shack nearby. Link distantly thinks about how nice his voice is without actually thinking about the words he’s saying. “You and your friends can meet us there.”

Mipha sighs and nods. “I would rather be there with you but I doubt they’ll be able to find the hospital without me. Please take care of him, Sidon.” she turns her gaze onto Link and shoots him a glare. “And you! Don’t be difficult while I’m not there!” 

Nodding his head, Link waved her off, watching her jog to catch up with Revali and Daruk who were nearly at the boardwalk by now.

“Alright, Link! I just need to grab my car keys from my bag and then we can be on our way,” Sidon flashed a wide grin at him, helping Link along the sand and to lean against the rail for a minute while he ran inside the shack for a moment. 

Mipha had seemed friendly with this guy and she trusted him enough to leave Link in his care so they had to be close. Family friends? Distant relatives?

His thoughts were interrupted when Sidon rushed back out of the shack carrying a lanyard with several keys and shiny, novelty keychains dangling off it and he was tugging on a faded red cardigan over his tank top. 

“Sorry to keep you waiting! My car isn’t too far off, the lifeguards have their own tiny parking lot behind the boardwalk,” he filled the idle air with small talk as they made their way off of the sand and in between a novelty beach supply shop and a weather-worn stand shelling out hot dogs and tubs of greasy fries. 

The smell alone was enough to make Link’s stomach flip and he had to struggle back another wave of nausea. 

Part of him considered giving up and just letting himself puke in the alleyway instead of accidently tossing his cookies on the floor of the hot lifeguard’s car. It was that thought that had pushed Link over the edge, leaning one arm against the brick wall of the store as he crouched down and promptly lost all of his lunch.

When he was done spilling his guts and coherent enough to wipe his mouth off with the back of his hand he realized that, despite him being absolutely disgusting and hunched over like a gremlin in an alley, Sidon had took a knee behind him and had been rubbing his back soothingly. “Are you alright?”

Spitting out the sand that had gotten into his mouth from his hand, he gave Sidon a quick thumbs up before standing up on shaky legs and letting him lead the way to the car.

“Well, I mean, It’s rather pathetic of me to ask if whether you’re alright or not seeing as you are quite obviously not but I felt as if it were pertinent to ask seeing as you were just-” 

Link interrupted the redhead's flustered mumbling by signing at him to ‘shut up.’ 

While it wasn’t the nicest way to get Sidon to stop muttering anxiously, it did make him laugh. Which seems just as good, if not better.

“Yes, of course. I apologize for my rambling,” he chuckled softly, making his way around a small silver car and manually unlocking the front door and popping the trunk. “While I’m more than properly trained for this job, I do find that it’s not every day I have to dive into the ocean after a well-meaning swimmer who just so happened to go unconscious while trying to retrieve a kickboard.”

Link rolled his eyes and luckily for him he was too tired to get embarrassed over this whole situation. 

He’s sure tomorrow morning, after a good night’s sleep, he’ll wake up positively mortified. 

From the trunk of his car, Sidon had grabbed a couple of towels. The first of which he brought over to the passenger side door where Link had been standing idly. He opened the door and laid out the towel over the seat before crossing over to the drivers side and setting one on his own. 

Link glanced down at the sand caking his legs from when he had been dragged out of the ocean and laid out on the sand and reached down to try and brush some of it off. It worked partly but mostly it just got even more sand stuck to his hands. Overall he was aching and gritty and just wanted to take a nap.

“Ah, don’t worry about making a mess! I work at the beach so there’s probably more than enough sand in here as it is,” in the time that Link had spent uselessly mushing the wet sand around on his legs, Sidon had already slid into the car, buckled up, and got it started. 

Grunting a response he grabbed onto the dashboard and clumsily folded himself into the passenger seat.

Link only stood at 5’7 but even he had a hard time trying to fold his legs into the small doorway of the car, how the hell did Sidon do it? By the time he had struggled into a seated position and clicked his seatbelt into place the lifeguard had a final, third towel held out.

“It’s hopefully not much to worry about, but the back of your head is still bleeding,” He gave a sheepish grin, somehow apologetic even if he had nothing to do with how Link got hurt. “Do you think you could press this against it while I drive us to the hospital?” 

Link groggily bunched up the towel behind his head and leaned back against it.

“Thank you! It’ll be about a 10 minute drive until we get to the hospital, so just hang on,” Sidon sent a cheery smile his way before turning his attention through the windshield as he pulled out of the lifeguard parking lot and out onto the busy road. 

The sun was bright from how it glared off of the chrome bumpers of other vehicles, it made Link’s vision double and his eyes screw shut as he turned his head away from the passenger side window. With his eyes shut the sway of the car weaving through traffic was putting him to sleep.

“Don’t fall asleep just yet, ok? There’ll be plenty of time for sleeping once we get to the doctor,” Sidon spoke up, rousing Link from the drowsy stupor he had found himself in. “You’ll have to pardon me if I’m not as adept at sign language as Mipha is but I recall a couple of phrases,” He explained as they pulled up to a stoplight, he turned to face the blonde, still occasionally glancing at the light. “Tell me, what are you studying in school currently?”

It took half a moment for Link to process all that, Sidon must be close to Mipha if he knows that Link’s in college. 

Maybe Sidon went to the same nursing school that she did? It would explain why he’s so close to her, although somewhere in his scrambled brain he feels like something’s missing. Like he’s heard of him before.

Link fingerspelled ‘Gen. Ed.’ and Sidon gave him a quick nod before turning his attention back to the road as the light turned green.

“Are you just taking core classes right now? That’s understandable. I’m going to get a degree in political science and while it’s what I’ve been planning for most of my life, I’m still not sure if that’s what I’d like to spend the rest of my life doing.” he hummed, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel and occasional glancing over at Link, who grunted to show that he was still listening. 

“Ah, here we are! The emergency room is over to the right of the building, I’ll try and park close to the entrance.” Sidon pointed towards a looming building with windows along every floor. 

They parked a fair distance away from the doors to the ER lobby and he was hopping out of the car and jogging over to open Link’s door like he was a fucking damsel in distress. 

Glaring up at that golden retriever of a man he huffily signed ‘I’m not a baby.’  
It only proved to make Sidon laugh.

“Of course you’re not a baby, Link,” He helped him out of the car. “But please, humour me? Mipha entrusted me to take good care of you and I don’t plan on breaking that promise.” 

Link huffed and grumbled to save face but eventually relented that he was going to need just the slightest bit of help getting around with his concussion. 

The blonde leaned heavily against the welcome desk to the ER, zoning out, while Sidon prattled on to the tired looking nurse sitting at her computer. 

He heard them mention something about getting a CT scan, something about possible stitches, he really was just focusing on not falling asleep to try and leave the aching pains in his head behind.

Link must’ve zoned out harder than he thought. 

The next thing he knew he was sleepily blinking his eyes open and peering into Sidon’s golden eyes as he bent over to be eye level with him. There were two much larger, much more tan hands wrapped around his own pale wrists. 

His gaze flicked between Sidon’s hands and eyes, not able to settle. God, he was so pretty.

“I said, the nurse can get us a room right away. Can you hear me?” the lifeguard asked, to which Link just hummed in response. “Ok,” he sighed, figuring a vague response was better than none as he put a hand on Link’s back and began to follow the nurse back down the winding hallways of the emergency room.

Link was almost disappointed when they finally got to the room where the doctor would be meeting with them. He had been practically leaning against Sidon the entire walk from the lobby to here and it was too cold to sit by himself. 

Huffily blowing the bangs out of his eyes, he sat on the edge of the cot, letting the nurse take his vitals and check out the back of his head.

“So, the good news is I don’t think you’re going to need any stitches for the cut on your head. I’ll let the doctor check it out just to be safe but I’m going to go ahead and get it cleaned up, ok?” The nurse explained as she pulled out disinfectant and gauze out of the cabinets. Link gave her a thumbs up. “Can you tell me why you’re in here today?” 

She already knew, Sidon had told her when they had first came in, she was just trying to see how well he could follow conversation with his concussion. 

When Link just stared at her she tried repeating her question to which he frustratedly signed to her ‘I understand.’

Obviously she didn’t know a lick of sign language because she glanced over to Sidon, confusion written all over her face.

“Ah, he’s mute. Sorry, I should’ve mentioned that earlier. I think he’s saying that he understands what you’re saying,” he clarified. 

The nurse made a noise of understanding and nodded her head, almost to herself, as she poured out some disinfectant onto some gauze. 

“OK, this might sting a little bit but it’ll be over quickly,” she warmed before gingerly dabbing the wad of gauze around the cut on the back of his head. Link blew out a sharp breath through his teeth, gripping onto the thin sheets covering the cot he was sitting on.

He was more than familiar with the feeling of getting an injury or scrape cleaned up, with how reckless he was as a child. But the burn of alcohol in his scratch was enough to make his head pound even worse than before and he had to stop himself from reaching out and yanking the nurse’s arm away.

Instead of focusing on the pain he attempted to focus on something leagues more pleasant.

Out of the corner of his eyes he could see Sidon peering at his phone screen and then type out what Link assumed was a text message.

Sidon, upon noticing the other’s gaze, looked up. He slipped his phone back into the pocket of his lifeguard swim trunks and offered a smile.

“That was Mipha, she was texting me to let me know that they’re on their way to the hospital soon,” He explained, glancing back at where the nurse was just finishing up. 

Link nodded, exhausted. “Can I sleep?’ he signed over to Sidon, hoping he would translate for the nurse. Which he immediately did.

“A lot of people think you can’t go to sleep after a concussion but it’s fine as long as somebody wakes you up every two hours. The doctor should be in soon so it’s fine,” The nurse says with a smile and a nod before exiting the room and moving on to her next patient.

Link could cry he’s so overjoyed to slowly lay back on the hospital bed that isn’t all that comfortable but feels like sleeping on a cloud with how drained he is.

All too ready to fall directly into the world’s deepest sleep he’s interrupted by the sound of shuffling and foot steps towards where he’s laying down.

Grumpily cracking open an eye, Link immediately softens when he sees Sidon nervously twisting his sweater in his hands before clearing his throat and quietly mumbling; 

“It’s rather cold in here and your clothes are still soaking wet,” he gestured to his swim shirt and trunks that were still damp and covered in sand. “Feel free to tell me if I’m overstepping any boundaries here but I thought I should offer my sweater. Again, please don’t refrain from telling me if I-”

Link took the sweater from him and laid it over top of him, curling up underneath it. ‘Thank you.’ He signed, successfully shutting the other up.

“I-er, yes! I mean, you’re welcome! Sleep well, Link,” Sidon sheepishly shuffled back to his seat and sat down. There was a blush creeping onto his face that Link was much too tired to question at the moment.

It took approximately 35 seconds for Link to fall unconscious.

He was woken around 15 minutes later to the sound of Mipha’s voice as she quietly interrogated the lifeguard.

Blearily blinking his eyes Link couldn’t help but notice how similar the two of them looked. The two had similarly tanned skin and red hair even if Sidon was a bit darker and much, much taller. 

Maybe they were cousins? It made sense with how close they were, he mused, watching as she reached over to lightly slap his arm at something he had said.

Mipha noticed Link waking up when he stretched out his legs and tugged the sweater off of himself.

“Hello, how are you doing, Link?” she asked quietly, stepping closer to the cot he was slumped on.

‘Awful.’

“I figured,” she giggled softly. “Sidon told me the doctor should be coming to check on you soon.”

Link stuck out his tongue in distaste, the other two laughed.

“I would be more offended if I didn’t agree that doctors are right dickheads sometimes,” Mipha rolled her eyes, moving to sit on the edge of his bed. “The others are sitting in the waiting room since there’s only allowed to be two of us back here at a time. After the doctor looks over you, Sidon and I will head back there and send Zelda and somebody else.”

‘Zelda?’ Link fingerspelled, knowing she had been rather upset before leaving to get the van.

“She wasn’t happy when she find out that you had already left without her and she nearly tore the head off the poor lady out front when they told her that only two people could be back here with you at a time,” Mipha explained, smiling fondly as she spoke. “I offered to let her go instead of me but she said she could probably benefit from a couple minutes to herself.”

Or she was just too much of a pushover when it came to Mipha, Link rolled his eyes.

The doctor came in shortly after that to ask how he was doing and he gave some basic information about concussions and to check his cut. Deeming it fine, he put some folded gauze on top of it and wrapped a bandage over top, taping it the sides of his forehead so that it wouldn’t stick to his hair and fall off. 

He went through a couple of tests before deciding, much to Link’s delight, that a CT scan wasn’t necessary for what he thought was a minor or mild concussion. They would give him some medicine for the pain and keep him here for a couple more hours, just to be safe. As long as he didn’t throw up again and stayed mostly coherent then he would be safe to go home and sleep it off.

“We’re going to head into the waiting room and send Zelda up here, feel better soon!” Mipha informed him after the doctor had left for his next patient. She gave him a small wave before heading out into the hallway, Sidon trailing after her.

Link scooted to the edge of the bed and held out the red sweater that the lifeguard had lent him.

“Ah, you can keep that if you’d like,” Sidon smiled shyly, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. “It’d be a pity if you were to catch a cold on top of your head injury and besides...” his face turned red once again. “I think it suits you better than it did me, anyways.” 

Link nearly giggled like a lovesick 13 year old girl as he clutched the sweater to his chest. 

However, he manages to rein himself in, smiling dopily and nodding at Sidon before he goes to follow after Mipha who’s probably halfway down the hall by now.

Link lays back down and snuggles into the sweater, hoping to grab a couple minutes of peace and quiet before Zelda come and murders him for being so reckless.

It seems that he isn’t so lucky because as soon as he starts drifting off to sleep she bursts into the room with Urbosa in tow.

He tugs the sweater over top of his head in an attempt to block her out.

“I know you’re awake, Link!” she huffs. “Face me, you coward.” Zelda yanks the sweater off of his head and she glares down at him with piercing green eyes. “Explain yourself.”

‘Later’ he signs, not wanting to pull his hands from the warm cocoon he’s made for himself for too long.

When they’re back at the beach house and it’s just him and her it shouldn’t be much of a problem for him to just tell her out loud everything that’s happened. 

While ASL does make it easier for him to communicate when his voice fails him like it does around people he doesn’t know and in similarly stressful situations, it isn’t without its flaws. A lot of sign language is dependent on body language and expressions and even then it gets twisted sometimes. A good bit of ASL is interpretation. Times like these, when he’s out of it, make it particularly frustrating to be selectively mute.

“You better give me every single excruciating, embarrassing detail in a meticulous play-by-play when we get back to the house,” Zelda says sternly as she shoves his legs aside to slide into the hospital bed beside him.

“You really shouldn’t be so rough on him right now,” Urbosa speaks up as she settles into the chair where Sidon had previously been sitting. “He’s probably lost the last few brain cells he possessed, through this whole endeavor.” 

She grinned smugly and from next to him he could hear Zelda snickering. Sticking his hand up from out of the sweater again he flipped her off. 

‘How are you?’ Link figured he should try and be at least a little nicer to Zelda after he scared her like that.

“I’m fine, it was just upsetting to see you like that.”

‘How?’

“Well, first off, that wave was giant and you’re absolutely shit at swimming-” Link whacked her with an arm, cutting her off.

“You know I’m right!” she huffed, raising her arm threateningly in return.

“You swim like a dog.” Urbosa chimed in, making him groan.

“Exactly. Anyways, luckily enough for you, Sidon had already made his way to the shore when he had heard me yelling for you when I first saw you’d gone in,” Zelda continued with her story. “As soon as I saw you go under, I told him to go after you because I knew you wouldn’t be able to swim through that.”

“Thank goddess he was there when he was, you were limp as a ragdoll when he pulled you out of the water,” Urbosa grumbled, folding her arms across her chest. “Just how on Earth did you manage to fall unconscious?”

‘Rock.’

“Oh, of course. Leave it to you to find the only rock in the ocean to bang your head into while under water. You keep finding new and innovative ways to amaze me,” Urbosa was utterly unimpressed but Link could tell she had been, and still was, worried about him.

“Sidon pulled you out and it looked like you were dead!” Zelda exclaimed, throwing her arms up. “It was absolutely horrifying, everybody ran over immediately when he laid you down and started doing CPR!”

“I had to stop Zelda from coming up and slapping you awake.”

“Luckily you were fine but it was a lot to deal with at once and I’m going to be mad at you for the rest of the trip,” as soon as Zelda was finished retelling what happened, she slumped against the raised back of the cot and let her head rest on his shoulder.

‘Sorry.’ Link signed then wrapped an arm around her shoulders, tugging her close. He let his head fall back against the bed as well, hoping to fall back asleep.

“Whose jacket is that?” Urbosa interrupted the quiet and pointed to the red cardigan draped across his torso.

Link grinned widely, face heating up the slightest bit. ‘Sidon,’ he finger spelled. He signed ‘He’s nice’ and put emphasis on it so they knew he really meant it.

“Oh my god, Link,” Zelda slowly sat up, looking at him with an incredulous look. “Do you have thing for Sidon?”

‘Maybe. Why?’ he shrugged. ‘He’s cute.’ 

“I can’t believe you!!” She laughed, halfway between amused and horrified with him. He could hear Urbosa laughing beside him.

‘What???’

“Nothing! It’s just I can’t believe you have a crush on Mipha’s little brother!” Zelda giggled behind her hand, shaking her head.

Link’s blood ran cold, smile disappearing. ‘Mipha’s WHAT???’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was able to get this second chapter out within a week because i had so many ideas! I'm really not 100% sure what's going to happen next and I'm not sure when I'll be able to post the third chapter because school is hard lmao
> 
> that being said, thank you so much for reading!!!


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